Category Archives: numbers

Mickey Mouse was born on November 18, 1928 in the film “Steamboat Willie”. Yesterday was his 86th Birthday. He’s still pretty spry for such an old guy. My own father is pretty close to the same age, born in about 1932.

And I… I was born in a blizzard in 1956, on November 17th, the day before his 28th birthday. Don’t do the math. I don’t really want to know how old I am. I have six incurable diseases, and I may be adding a seventh to that, depending on what my cardiologist finds out. I survived malignant melanoma in 1983. I am deeply grateful for every day of the 31 years I have lived since.

This post started out as something about birthdays. Mickey’s and mine (who am also Mickey)… But I think it is really about numbers. There are still important numbers to consider. I have published two novels, Aeroquest and Catch a Falling Star. I have one more novel that I signed a contract with PDMI Publishing for, Snow Babies. It is the best story I ever wrote. I have a finished manuscript, The Bicycle-Wheel Genius, that I am polishing to submit to the publisher in the spring. I submitted a finished novel, Superchicken, that I am still waiting for word on, whether they will publish it, pass on it, or burn it and wave chicken feet over the ashes. So I potentially have four books that could be in print soon. I am feverishly trying to finish my novel The Magical Miss Morgan in draft form. Why am I so feverishly trying to turn four books into five? And then maybe five into six? It is a question of time. How much time do I really have left? I confess to having at least twelve novel length stories that are only written in my head and outlined on paper. The clock is ticking. I want to share all of these stories, but I know I probably do not have 86+ years. I truly believe that both this Mickey and that Mickey are capable of speaking to the ages, but it can only happen if I get my words shared so that somebody I do not know will read them, smile a little, laugh a little, maybe cry a little, and understand what I tried to say.

So here’s a self portrait of what Mickey once looked like (before the beard and long hair) along with Valerie Clarke, the main character of Snow Babies, and the most beautiful little girl ever born in Norwall, Iowa.